


Health +1

by Aleio



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Comedy, F/M, Light-Hearted, M/M, Multi, Other, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-05-21 00:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14905358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aleio/pseuds/Aleio
Summary: A broken ankle could lead a young CEO to the perfect relationship with his dream soulmate. He just has to make sure nothing else breaks in the meantime.





	1. Chapter 1

This was beyond embarrassing.

Riku was at the peak of physical health; excellent cholesterol levels, great bone structure, could run a steady 5 miles a day (even more if time in his busy schedule allowed), and even had naturally straight teeth. No major illness aside from the occasional cold, but that was quickly overcome after a few days. The point is, Riku was a healthy man with good, strong, healthy bones. 

Which is why he was still staring in disbelief at his now broken ankle. 

One minute he was lightly jogging around the beach while his film crew snapped ‘candid’ photos of him, the next he was being loaded into the back seat of his car, adrenaline dulling but not completely masking the steadilyy growing pain in his ankle. 

He tripped over a seashell. A seashell. This was not in the young Elixir Magazine CEO’s schedule. This would throw off his whole week. He had lunch plans for heaven’s sake! He was supposed to wrap up this photoshoot today for his 4 page spread in next month’s issue, emphasizing how jogging on the beach should be taken advantage of by the city dwellers of Bastion City. How will he ever be able to justify this article after braking his own ankle during a light jog on the beach?

As the car made its way to the main freeway Riku did his best to keep his mind off his ever swelling ankle, trying to figure out how to reschedule around his new major inconvenience.

“We can reschedule your lunch with the head of Jenova Tech to next week or I can take your place there,” Cloud commented. As the President of Exiler, he was used to sitting in on meetings for Riku during double bookings or other minor events. "The lunch is a formality to discuss a few publication edits about their new line of prosthetics.”

Riku groaned, “This will be the second time you’ve had to see him in my place. Very unprofessional for a CEO to do that.” Nevertheless, he gave Cloud his cell phone and let the older man filter through his schedule. Cloud was originally CEO of Elixir after working at Ragnarok for several years and knew better than anyone how to navigate around the many executives in the city. 

“I’ve worked with Sephiroth before, he will understand.” Cloud continued down the list, systematically clearing out the next few weeks of meetings and events and adding the more important events to his own calendar. “Leon, we need to take this exit to get to the hospital.”

“The next exit is less busy, we will get there quicker taking the next one.” Leon said as a matter-of-factly, “and we already have lunch plans, cancel with Sephiroth.” The smallest bit of annoyance made its way into the mans voice at the man’s name.

“I can’t cancel, the Jenova articles are what bring in the most readers. We have to be on their good side,” Cloud replied, giving Leon a quick look of apology before turning his attention back to Riku, who was now snickering at them both.

“Why Cloud, you know you can’t fraternize with other members of the company, our Operations Manager, no less!”

Leon took a sharper-than-needed turn off of the freeway exit, causing Riku to bump his elevated foot against the door ever so slightly. Pain shot through his entire leg. 

“We should have enough from the photoshoot to get something out on the article,” Cloud continued, completely ignoring Riku’s teasing or Leons sudden aggressive turns. He was used to Riku’s snarky remarks and Leon’s subtle slights. “We may need to change the article to ‘exercising can encourage faster healing’ or something..” 

Cloud never seemed to turn off from the company business. He appointed Riku as CEO so he could have a lighter schedule simply as President, but this injury would put Riku out for a couple weeks at least. Cloud didn’t seem to be complaining, however, as he was already making phone calls and sending emails by the time Leon parked the car in front of the hospital. 

A couple hours later Riku was finally checked in, x-rayed and laid up in his own private hospital room. The pain medications slowly seeped into his system, relaxing his body into the bed. It was a broken ankle all right. Dr. Gainsborough, a kind woman with warm green eyes was friends with Cloud and assured them that after seeing the X ray results Riku would not need surgery but would be down for a few days so they could monitor his healing.

Cloud was wrapping up his last phone call when Leon checked the time, “We should be heading to lunch with Jenova now,” he commented and grabbed his and Cloud’s items. He decided he would accompany Cloud on the lunch (for business related reasons, of course). 

“Let us know if you need anything. I left your laptop, phone, and some clothes in your bag. I’ve got the next couple of weeks covered. You can’t move around too much with that ankle anyways.” 

Said ankle was about the size of a grapefruit by now. 

Riku smiled lazily at his mentor. Ever since he joined Elixer Cloud and Leon had been like parents to him. Compared to the other executives that scoffed at him merely for his young age (a CEO at 28 happens but is not common), Cloud saw a spark in him that he could help mold into something great. His publications on medical and technological advancements throughout high school and college mixed with his passion on the industry sold him as the perfect breath of fresh air the Magazine needed. A young, attractive CEO with modern ideas was just what the company needed to increase their subscribers by almost double in the past two years. Whether it was his likable attitude and looks, his innovative ideas, or a mix of both, he worked in the company’s favor. Even Leon warmed up to him. Though he did not admit it, Cloud was very proud.

“Aww, thanks Mom. I think I can handle myself from here.” He waved them both away. 

Cloud rolled his eyes and headed toward the door. Just as he reached from the handle, the door clicked open and a mop of light brown hair popped through.

“Oh, hi there! Sorry I’m late, excuse me-“ the newcomer said as the rest of him passed through the door. 

Riku stared at the young man as he introduced himself to everyone, listening to his cherry, slightly husky voice but not quite understanding the words he was saying. He was too busy noticing the shockingly sharp but delicate features of his face, the sun-kissed skin that was smooth and ever-so-lightly freckled, bright blue eyes that put his dark navy scrubs to shame, and an even brighter smile that made Riku forget to breathe for just a moment. Even Cloud and Leon stared for a few seconds before quietly excusing themselves out of the room. 

When the young man went silent, waiting for Riku to answer the question he just asked, it still took a few seconds for Riku to try to respond, but he just blinked a few more times before opening his mouth to answer. He closed it again after not remembering what the question was.

“Must be the painkillers working through you, huh?” The young man in scrubs chuckled as he began looking over RIku’s clipboard.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry,” Riku finally remembered how to speak, “Foggy brain. What was all that you just said?”

“No worries! Happens all the time. My name is Sora,” he introduced himself, “ I’ll be your physical therapist while your ankle gets healed up. The good news is that it’s a minor fracture, and you won’t need surgery so long as you keep it elevated and in the splint.” 

“Bad news?”

“You’ll have to stay here for a couple of days while we make sure your ankle is healing well enough to not need surgery. So no moving around for a while, unfortunately.”

Riku considered that for a split second, determining that he would definitely need to stay at the hospital under Sora's care for at least a week.

“Well, you’re the expert. My foot is in your care.” 

Sora smiled, “We can figure out your therapy plan a little later. Says here you injured your foot while running on the beach?” 

“Yep.”

“Interesting, I just had a final session with a patient who had a similar incident and fracture.”

“Oh? Is this a common injury for people running on the beach?”

“Not really, the person was much older and just trying to stay active into retirement. That ankle kind of gave up mid-jog.” 

And just like that, Riku, who has great bone structure, who was at the peak of his physical health, fell into embarrassment all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo, my first story here! I've only just picked up writing after, oh 8 years? Let's hope it only gets better from here!


	2. Chapter 2

It was a bright and sunny morning. Perfect weather for hitting the beach, going for a swim, maybe taking a jog.

Or angirly napping in the cool, air-conditioned living room of your executive’s after being devastatingly pulled away from the safety of your hospital bed a whole 3 hours earlier than your scheduled departure.

Riku was beyond upset at Cloud and Leon.

As soon as Dr. Gainsborough cleared him for release, the pair were bursting into his hospital room within the hour to pack him and his items away. There was no necessary rush, of course, that he could see. Only being able to see Sora a small handful of times in that week, Riku was not able to so much as get more than a greeting and a small discussion about his aftercare plan. He wasn’t even able to get Sora’s cell number. How could they pull him away before he could have one more check in with his physical therapist? And any emergency care he could have needed in those crucial final hours?

Aside from the fact that he had stayed at the hospital for nearly a week longer than he needed to. 

Though his assigned physician was nothing less than kind to him, Cloud could sense his old friend’s patience wearing very, very thin with Riku (and she was not one to anger so easily). The young man could walk with barely more than a limp right now. Any physical therapy at this point would be deemed almost excessive for his injury.

But it was already scheduled for next Monday. Riku would have to hold out until then.

“You’d better not have any other accidents for the rest of the year” Cloud said as he placed two hot drinks on his coffee table, "The company insurance is great and all, but that extra week may have pushed you over the coverage amount."

Riku continued to be asleep, angrily huffing into the couch. Leon, who was sitting in the loveseat reading the Bastion weekly, picked up one of the mugs of coffee and took a sip before returning to his reading. Cloud sat next to him and, seeing that Riku was not going to take the coffee he made for him, grabbed the mug for himself to drink before it could get cold.

A few more minutes of silence fell between the three men. Leon, who was more than happy to continue reading his newspaper, did nothing to try to cheer up their huffy CEO. It was up to Cloud to try and snap him out of his mood.

“We were able to fill in the article with another story,” he began, “Yuffie was finishing her article to Gullwing Delivery. They recently launched their new service to deliver medical supplies all over Bastion.” 

Riku’s eyebrows furrowed, but remained stubbornly asleep.

Cloud continued, “Leon came up with a good idea on how to maintain your photoshoot after talking with Sora a bit a couple days ago.”

Riku cracked one eye open.

“He has a great personality, and a lot of knowledge in his field for someone only a couple years out of grad school.”

Both of Riku’s eyes were slightly open now, starting at Cloud. Cloud decided then to take a long sip of coffee, letting his temperamental CEO suffer a few more moments of silence.

“And? Aaaand?” Riku’s voice was strained, he leaned closer to Cloud, mere centimeters from falling off the couch.

Leon calmly folded his newspaper and set it on the coffee table. “Assuming everything goes well enough, we were thinking of adding Sora and the physical therapy sessions to your article for next month, to emphasize proper care for sports and exercise related injuries.”

“What? R-really?” Riku stared at Leon with a mixed expression of disbelief and overwhelming joy. He looked over at Cloud, who nodded in confirmation.

“If Aerith can clear it with the heads, we should be good to go. We have a few days before your therapy starts, and since you should stay off your feet until then you can stay here. I need to catch you up on some items for the next upcoming board meeting anyway.” 

Riku was already pulling his laptop from his bag next to the couch, typing away almost immediately at his full inbox.

“Yes!” Riku exclaimed loudly, "Brief me on it. I’ll work through my emails while we do, gotta clear my schedule for next week. Can’t be distracted during therapy while also writing an article now can I? Where’s my phone? I gotta schedule that appointment with Jenova. And Yuffie! What was her article on? Gullwings? Cloud, call her up for me, would you?

Cloud quirked an eyebrow, but decided to go right into business details while he had Riku’s attention. Leon took this moment to make another batch of coffee. If Riku wanted to get all the work done that he missed from Cloud’s couch, the three of them would need a lot of caffeine.

 -----------

Saturday mornings were Sora’s favorite time of the week. He was able to sleep in an extra hour, go for a swim at the beach nearby, and laze about his apartment while munching on scrambled eggs, toast, and leftover barbecue from a dinner party he attended with friends the night before.

He was relatively healthy the rest of the week, eating his greens and only drinking water, but the weekends were for eggs, carbs, and leftovers. Downed with a huge glass of orange juice. 

Satisfied with his large breakfast, he patted his now round belly while sifting through his laptop to review next week’s schedule. Next week would be relatively easy, save for one of his upcoming patients. 

He blushed slightly and gave a small laugh, remembering the somewhat needy but very charming silver haired patient. He could have sworn that the man- Riku was his name, right? He could have sworn Riku was trying to hit on him a few times during his stay at the hospital, but after talking with his two coworkers (or bosses, he wasn’t quite sure) he realized he may have just been scouted for a good story.

“Ah, well,” Sora sighed, shrugging off his disappointment, “at least I’ll get to be in a magazine. That would be kind of cool.” 

He peered over his table to see three business cards that the blonde man had given him. Reaching over to grab them, he briefly scanned Riku’s card.

Riku Highwind  
CEO & Writer  
Elixer Magazine

Sora gave a low whistle. 

Fancy title, and he writes too? 

He didn’t think it would violate any laws to see public information on his patient, so he decided to do some searching online to see what Elixir Magazine was all about instead.

And possibly check out a few of Riku’s articles...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very short chapter after a very long time in between posting the first one. I can only apologize and use life as an excuse. I just started a new job, went on a long vacation, and got a new puppy! Just finally catching my breath from all the wonderful things happening and will try and carve out more time for writing this! I'm hoping to keep the story short and lighthearted. It's much more refreshing for me that way... :)


	3. Final

Monday finally came.

Riku, exhausted from cramming a week’s worth of meetings and emails into just a few days, still managed to make it in time for his morning appointment at Bastion Medical’s Physical Therapy Ward. 

Leon made sure not to let Riku leave Cloud’s apartment until his inbox was cleared, and Cloud could head to the office with Riku’s final approvals and notes in hand. It wasn’t that Riku didn’t think any of the work was important (it was technically his company to run!) he just really wanted to make sure he would make it to his next appointment on time.

Health comes first, right?

Despite Riku taking his bigger projects back from Cloud, the blonde man still had to continue the meetings with Sephiroth without him Monday morning, much to Leon’s discomfort. To compromise Leon would attend the meeting after dropping Riku off at the Hospital. 

So once the younger lovesick man was carted to the therapy ward, Leon sped off to Elixir Magazine’s office.

———

Cloud was almost as exhausted as Riku was. Working through the weekend meant he had no downtime to destress from the overtime he put in while Riku was out. And sitting through video conference after video conference in his apartment with Riku and the other executives and managers had just about pushed him past his limit for socialization. 

Cloud sat in his office and rifled through his emails and voicemail. He tried not to daydream of his soft sheets or the steaks Leon left marinating in his fridge, waiting to be cooked into a hot meal and eaten casually in front of his television. He only had one more meeting today and then he was committing the rest of the day to his couch and/or bed.

A knock at his door shook him out of his half productive state.

“Breakfast!” A cheerful voice announced as his Office Manager let herself in, carrying a small plate with an assortment of sweet and savory pastries, followed by a basket of mugs, creamer, and a pitcher of the lifeblood better known as coffee.

“Right on time, Tifa.” Cloud greeted the brunette as she set the breakfast items on his coffee table. Cloud’s office was large enough to allow him his own large desk as well as a space for a small coffee table and four arm chairs. Tifa had began as his assistant in the early days of the company and soon began caring for not only him but Leon, Riku, and just about everyone else in the company. She knew how to accommodate everyone’s needs and schedules in like clockwork. 

“I know you’re busy, so I won’t bore you with any compliments about how hard you’ve been working,” Tifa said as she set a cup of coffee with a dash of creamer on Cloud’s desk, “but once our delicate flower of a CEO is back I would say you’ve deserved a well-earned vacation.” 

“He did work hard on the Ragnarok discussions.” Cloud said in defense of Riku.

“Well at least he can do something,” After shifting the plates and cups once more she dusted her skirt off. “And now if you’ll excuse me,” she said heading out the door just before Cloud heard a light ding coming from the front desk, “I believe your next meeting is here.”

Said meeting wasn’t supposed to take place for another 20 minutes, but in their usual fashion, the head honcho of Jenova Tech and his assistant arrived early. It seemed like they enjoyed catching people off guard. But Tifa was used to this behavior and timed her preparations almost perfectly. Cloud was just finishing his second sweet sip of coffee when she returned, guests in tow.

“So good to see you again, Cloud.” Sephiroth entered the office, eyes immediately locked into the younger President’s as he gave a professional yet slightly predatory smile. His assistant, an equally tall man with dark hair and striking red eyes nodded in recognition and entered in after.

Cloud greeted them both and shook hands before inviting the pair to sit across the table from him. He gave Tifa a small smile in thanks and she retuned a quick wink before disappearing out the door to tend to the rest of the office affairs.

“Prepared as ever. Your assistant really makes a wonderful presentation for your guests.” Sephiroth commented, picking up a cup of black coffee and pouring some creamer in. His gaze traveled to the empty chair next to Cloud, with an additional cup in front of it.

“From our phone call yesterday I wasn’t expecting your CEO to be back until later this week. I do hope the papers we sent over weren’t too much of a hassle for him to review this weekend.”

“Tifa is out Office Manager,” Cloud corrected the silver haired main (though not for the first time) “She runs the entire office and we wouldn’t know what to do without her. And no, Riku isn’t joining us yet. He has an appointment with his physical therapist today and should be back in the office for a bit tomorrow.”

“In the meantime,” Cloud continued just as the door to his office opened, “Leon and I will continue with discussions as I stated at our last meeting.”

A rather large stack of papers was dropped onto the coffee table by Leon as he picked up the remaining coffee and took his place in the arm chair next to Cloud. Sephiroth eyed the stack of papers. It looked to be official documents with scribblings of all manner of pen color and writing style that covered everywhere except the signature lines.

“This is the same contract I sent to you last week.” He stated dryly.

Cloud nodded, “Yes, for Jenova Tech’s acquisition offer.”

“Riku spent the weekend making some notes for us to review today,” Leon stated, taking a sip of coffee, “and while Elixir Magazine wants to continue strengthening our relationship with your company in terms of your breakthrough scientific discoveries, I can say that no, we won’t be accepting any sort of acquisition or merger by your current terms.” 

“We can spend today discussing what Riku wrote,” Cloud said, "and he can answer any remaining questions you have at our next board meeting. Though I will say you really did underestimate us by thinking we would agree to half of the items in there.” 

Sephiroth rised an eyebrow and took the stack of papers in his hands to further read the notes. After a few moments of scanning the , he gave a small chuckle and passed the documents to his stoic assistant.

“I may have underestimated your young CEO as well.” 

Cloud and Leon spared a moment to glance at each other, each communicating something a little differently to eachother.

The company is safe for another day.

We are going to eat so much steak after this.

\---

Riku was in heaven.

Painful, torturous heaven.

The hour was almost up for their appointment. In that time Sora had Riku walk, jump, crawl, balance, and now the apple of his eye, sunshine smile and all, was slowly rotating his ankle as it nearly snapped, crackled, and popped under his experienced hands.

“Your motor skills are doing very well!” Sora commented. He mentioned to Riku at the beginning to let him know if the pain would be too much. But Riku was no quitter. The joy of just being with Sora again outweighed the fact that he was in so much pain he began to sweat just a little. 

In fact he was exhausted. But he would be damned if he even flinched away from Sora’s sun kissed hands even for a moment.

A few more moments and Sora finally set Riku’s ankle gently back down onto a raised pillow by his chair.

“G-great! As I say, health comes first..” Riku gave his poor ankle a gentle rub, hoping that would keep some of the pain away.

“I was getting a bit worried that you may have lost feeling in your foot. Most people complain when I work half as hard on their feet like that.” Sora chuckled and scribbled a few more notes on his clipboard. “Now, as long as we stick with a few of the exercises we practiced per day, your ankle should be good as healed before the end of the month.”

“Yes, thank you,” Riku smiled back at the young therapist, “I would definitely like to do these exercises with you every morning.”

Sora laughed, “Well you’ll be on your own soon enough. Your ankle is definitely healing quite nicely, and I don’t think I can be of any more use to you after this week.”

Riku’s heart fell.

“Unless you want to schedule a couple more for the article’s sake?”

Riku’s heart picked right back up.

“Ah! Yes! The article!” He exclaimed, reaching into his bag for hit note book. “I did a bit of sleuthing online and took notes on your reviews by other patients. All public information, of course. And rest assured you can verify the info and take whatever information you want off the article. Do you have time today?” 

“You’re my only appointment today.” Sora said, taking a seat next to Riku, “I only have your appointment and a couple others this week and then I have some house calls to a few clients on sport-focused exercises.”

“Ah! Right, you actually work with the Aurochs every now and then, correct?” 

“When they’re in town. I make a few trips a year to Besaid to check up or just visit them. I went to school with a lot of the players on the team right now.”

“What? The Blitzball team? Thats amazing!”

With the therapy session now complete, the pair continued their conversation into the Hospital lobby for the next couple of hours; Riku asking question after question, and Sora happily answering with as much detail and he thought Riku wanted. By the time they had finished, Riku was certain he could have come out with an article all on Sora’s background alone. He was both impressed and enamored with how much skills and charisma were placed into one person.

When they finally decided to wrap up the interview, Sora brought Riku a cup of coffee from the small cafe stand in the lobby while Riku stored his notes away.

“So I do have a confession,” Sora said as he handed Riku his coffee. The silver haired man raised a brow at him.

“Oh?”

“I did some sleuthing of my own, and read a couple of your articles.” Sora admitted, “All public information, of course.” He winked and smiled at Riku, sending a flutter through him.

“You’re an incredible writer, you’ve covered a lot of medical breakthroughs and controversial practices. I mean, robotic prosthetics, voluntary human testing, mental health education for young kids, they were amazing!”

Riku was speechless. Sora actually took the time out of his day to read all those articles he posted?

“And now you’re a CEO of your own magazine company.” Sora continued, “That’s impressive in itself. I don’t mean to sound like a fanboy, but as much as I can be without violating any doctor patient confidentiality rules, I’m a big fan of your work.” 

Sora’s face flushed a little in embarrassment, and he laughed nervously while rubbing the back of his head.

“Even funnier, and I’m definitely violating some HIPAA law probably, but while you were in the Hospital I thought you were hitting on me. But after reading your articles I’m sure it was definitely just your charm and you working on the next article for your magazine-”

“I WAS HITTING ON YOU!” Riku interrupted Sora suddenly, and loud enough that everyone in the lobby could hear. Realizing the volume of his voice, he continued slightly quitter, “I was definitely hitting on you. So hard.” 

Sora blushed a deep crimson red. “R-really?” 

Riku nodded, green eyes locked onto the brunette’s blue ones. “And I’m absolutely willing to cancel all of our therapy sessions and possibly the article if you would want to go out to dinner with me sometime to make sure you’re compliant with HIPPA. Or we can still go out to dinner and keep the articles and appointments, HIPAA laws be damned.” 

After a few moments of silence passed, Riku never taking his eyes off Sora, and Sora still processing everything Riku just said over in his mind a few times over.

“Uh, yes? Yes, definitely yes!” Sora finally managed to answer with equal enthusiasm, “But maybe on the HIPPA compliant side so I don’t lose my license? The article is just fine, but I’ll have to fire you as my patient.”

“Thats fine. My ankle really doesn’t need all this attention on it anyways.” Riku responded, “And I make a horrible patient.”

Sora laughed. “Alright then, ex-patient. When should we have that dinner?”

“I’ll pick you up at 7 tonight?”

“Can you even drive with that ankle?”

“Oh, right… You’ll pick me up at 7 tonight?”

“Deal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo, don't even have time to proof-read this little mofo but it's done! Short, sweet, and could have all been condensed into a 1 chapter one-shot. But where's the fun in that?
> 
> I definitely have a lot of practice ahead of me for buffin up my writing. Hopefully it will only get better from here! 
> 
> Thank you for stopping by to read!


End file.
